On the Way Home
by Silvestria
Summary: "I had a dream. A dream of long ago." Spoilers for the 50th Anniversary Special.


_A/N: First attempt to write for Doctor Who! But after watching the 50th Anniversary and being filled with so many conflicting feelings and emotions, I just had to write_ something. _And I desperately wanted some sign of Rose amid all the loveliness that was the return of Bad Wolf. So this happened!_

_Happy 50th Anniversary! :D_

* * *

She awoke with a start, heart pounding, suddenly unsure of where she was. For a moment, she had felt swaying, smelled dust, heard a faint, rhythmic wheezing sound she hadn't heard in a long time...

Then she came to herself. The swaying was only the car, driven too fast and too recklessly along the autoway, there was no unusual smell and the only sound was the inane whistling of her companion. An old classic by Britney Spears.

Her heartbeat slowed but she did not let go of the hand grip she had grabbed. The countryside was rushing past her in the dark, her eyes being blinded over and over again by the headlights of approaching cars on the other side of the road.

He stopped whistling and took his eyes off the road to give her a lop-sided grin. "All right? You fell asleep."

"Yeah. Fantastic." Images were flashing before her eyes still, burning her retina. Burning like the sun. "Pull over a minute, will you?"

He frowned but immediately wrenched the steering wheel to one side, jerking the car across two lanes of traffic to the hard shoulder. Horns beeped and she yelled, "Oy!"

"Rude!" he snapped back and pulled sharply on the handbrake.

"You really want to give my mum an excuse to kill you after last time?"

He shrugged at her. "How was I to know we were going the wrong way down the street?"

"I dunno, the no entry sign maybe? Bit of a give away."

"Oh, you know me; see a big no entry sign and – well, you do know me." He suddenly became serious, his eyes fixed on her face with an intensity that even now made her shiver. "Are you really alright?"

She nodded, her eyes dropping. "I had a dream. A dream of long ago."

"Was I in it?" he asked quietly after a pause. He shifted in the car seat to face her fully, taking her hands in his and holding them tightly. Hers were chilled.

_Burning. So much burning. The desert. The box. Old eyes – and young. The prison cell. Golden light._

"I was there," she whispered some time later, raising her eyes to his.

"Where? Where were you, Rose?" he asked, his voice impossibly gentle.

She weaved her fingers more tightly through his. "I was there. At the end. With you."

"I don't remember that."

"No." She touched his cheek and smiled, trying to smooth away the sadness that lingered in his eyes, his ancient eyes. "But I do."

He wanted to know so badly, she could tell, and her heart filled with a bubbling excitement at the thought of all the things she could say, all the secrets he could finally be permitted to know, all the anguish he could put to rest, even as the events of her dream crystallised in her mind, unravelling before her for a second time, more secure now as she became fully conscious of them.

She laughed slightly. "Funny, isn't it? Different universe, entire time vortex between us, and I can still see it."

He met her smile, painfully. "Funny old universes."

Suddenly, it overwhelmed her, this mixture of past and present, old universe and new, and this feeling even when awake of being surrounded by _him_. All of him, even versions of him she had never met. Her eyes flickered up to his and then, with wordless consent, she slid into his arms which opened for her and held her tightly.

She could feel his heart beat against her own, feel his breath on her cheek, feel the comfort he drew from her as much as she did from him. She shut her eyes, but when she did she saw right through the vortex and was back there – with them. She opened her eyes.

"My Doctor," she breathed into his hair, claiming him.

"My Rose." He pressed a kiss into her hair and did not let her go.

Her heartbeat slowed until it matched his perfectly. Two hearts, beating as one. Reluctantly, she pulled away. "Let's go home. I'll tell you when we're home."

It didn't seem right, sitting in the car at the side of the autoway, traffic flowing past them in the dark, paused in the middle of the journey.

His eyes crinkled into a smile, the crow's feet that had developed over the last few years endearingly apparent. "Home it is then." He let go of her and put his hand on the gear stick and hesitated. "Ah, Rose, it might take a while. We've got a long way to go still."

She made herself comfortable, pulling her scarf more tightly round her. "Taking the scenic route again, are we? Doctor, that only makes sense in daylight."

He checked over his shoulder and put the engine into gear. "Someone once told me that it wasn't the destination that was important, it was the journey that mattered."

"Shakespeare?" she suggested, unimpressed.

"Nah, not him... Could have been Morrissey."

"Oh my God, you met Morrissey?"

"Just the once. And turned out it wasn't Morrissey after all. Most disappointing concert ever _and _they wouldn't give me my money back. Apparently alien possession isn't covered by insurance."

She rolled her eyes at the darkness outside the window. "You never have any luck."

"I have you," he said and she turned to face him again, amused and touched by his sudden sincerity.

"You always have me," she replied, her tongue poking between her teeth as she grinned. Just for a moment, he thought he saw a flash of gold in her eyes.

Probably a reflection of headlights.

He grinned back as he inched the car out onto the autoway and pressed his foot to the accelerator. "Home then?"

"Home," she nodded.

"You know," he added, glancing sideways at her, "being with you, I'm already home. You, me, this car, and a wonderful journey. That's home enough for me."

"Might be enough for you but I happen to like my bed."

He waggled his eyebrows at her, breaking the moment. "So do I."

"So get driving!" She poked him.

Eyes narrowed, he accepted the challenge. He grabbed the gear stick and pulled it with a flamboyant jerk into sixth gear, revving the car unnecessarily. It was not quite the same as flicking a lever and dancing around a console but it wasn't a bad substitute either.

"Allons-y, Rose Tyler!" he cried, grinning at her, a grin she couldn't help but return. "Destination: home!"

In a cloud of exhaust fume, the little blue mini careered across three lanes of the autoway into the fast lane and disappeared with a roar into the blackness of the night.


End file.
